Joy ride
by Suntiger
Summary: In moments where everything goes wrong, you find your peace of mind while sharing laughter with those who matter the most.


_Suntiger_: This is for _xWhitexWindx_. I hope she likes it XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the OC. The OC belongs to _xWhitexWindx_.

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He was running late.

Ventus sighed as he turned the wheel of his car and tried to focus on the road but guilt was gnawing at his conscious. How could he be late? This was his first date with Arien! Aqua was going to give him so much crap if she found out! He would just have to tell her that Vanitas made him late. The diabolical older sibling just wouldn't surrender the car keys until he got on his knees and begged.

Scratch that. Maybe he wouldn't tell her. He still had a bit of pride left.

He swerved the car into the drive way and fished his phone out of his jean pocket to text Arien, hoping she wouldn't be too upset with him.

A knock on the window jolted him. "Hey! Open up!"

Arien looked as if she had taken no time to prepare herself for the evening. Her layered, dark brown hair curled inwards and she had swept her bangs to the side so they wouldn't cover her eyes. She was sans makeup, something he appreciated about her, and wore casual clothes.

Jeans and a black and white checkered shirt. Was she copying him?

It wasn't as if he had known what she was going to wear so it was awkward when he realized they were dressed alike.

Ventus stared at her, taking in her excited stormy gray eyes and bright grin. Guess she wasn't upset after all. He unlocked the door. "Hey! Sorry I'm-"

"Dude! No time!" She slammed the door shut after she hopped into the passenger seat. "Step on it!"

Ventus panicked, immediately shifting the gears. "Okay! Okay!" He made the turn as she buckled her seat belt. "Do you remember where we're going?"

She flashed him another grin. "To the carnival!"

Ventus laughed nervously. "Well, yeah, but do you remember the directions?"

The grin disappeared. "No…I thought you knew where to go…"

"Weren't you supposed to get directions from Lea?" Ventus shot her a desperate look.

"Yes," she hissed darkly, slightly sinking into her seat as she crossed her arms. "But the idiot didn't pick up his phone, so I called Aqua and she told me not to worry about it because you knew."

Ventus rolled his eyes. "Did she now? Geez." He handed over his cell phone. "Can you call her again and ask?"

"Yeah, no problem." She nodded. A blush crept on her face as she took the phone from him. She dialed and waited for their mutual best friend to answer. "Aqua! Hey! So Ventus doesn't actually know the directions to- yeah. I know where that is. That close? You sure? Are there any parking places left? Great! We'll see you soon then!" Arien hung up and smiled with relief. "Good news! We just have to park behind the school's gym and Aqua will lead us to it."

The turning signal switched on. "So we're walking there then?"

"Yeah, it's close by and it'll be easier to par- VENTUS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Arien's scream filled the car.

Ventus slammed the brake just as he made a left turn, cursing under his breath as all of the cars in the opposite lane screeched to a sudden halt. Traffic from all directions froze in the middle, honking at each other. Luckily, no one got creamed.

"Why are you all going? I had the green light!" Ventus shouted, continuing his way as he removed them from harm's way.

"Traffic light was damaged," Arien said softly, pointing at the malfunctioning traffic light above them. She was paler than a few seconds ago. "Guess it's going to be a challenge to get through on our way home."

Ventus tuned her out, mentally cursing at himself for scaring Arien and had the thought of writing a very unpleasant letter to the mayor of the city. Honestly, how could they expect people to feel safe on the roads if munny wasn't repairing damaged traffic lights!

He inhaled sharply to calm his nerves until he realized it had gotten eerily quiet. He quickly glanced at Arien. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Huh?" Stormy eyes were wide and slightly dazed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just…" She fell into a silence and an awkward tension grew between them.

Heat rushed to his face as he wished to disappear. This was an awful start to a date. Not only had he been late, he had also nearly got her killed. She probably thought he was a terrible driver, an inconsiderate date, and-

"You missed the turn." She broke into his thoughts.

"What?" He blinked and looked into the rear mirror to see the school gym behind him. "I thought it was supposed to be behind the school's gym?"

"Yeah, but you still went a little too far from the meeting point," she replied with a chuckle.

He groaned. Perfect. Just perfect.

No one was coming from the other direction so he improvised a sharp u-turn, earning a squeak from her. Why not? Recklessness seemed to be his middle name today and it wasn't as if he could make himself appear worse in her eyes anyway.

He was definitely going to get a lecture from Aqua.

Ventus parked the car and sprinted to her door to open it for her, attempting to be a gentleman. Arien eyed him skeptically at first but smiled and blushed.

"Thanks! That was…unexpected," she giggled, letting herself out.

He smiled, a tad prideful that he managed to do that right. "No problem!"

Taking it a bit further, he lent his left arm to her, which she took a bit awkwardly, and began walking to the carnival. They had just entered, Ventus paying for them both, when they were cornered by Aqua.

"VEN! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" The blunette was louder than necessary but Ventus figured she was just making sure she was heard over the noise, considering that the other option was that she might actually be annoyed with him.

His free hand went behind his head but Arien took over before he could respond, "Aqua! You look so pretty! Is Terra here with you? Did he come dressed up, too? Did you guys come by yourselves or did you bring friends? Or is it a date?"

Ventus chuckled in amusement as Aqua's face turned bright red. Arien had successfully gotten her off his case and to that he was grateful. He really wasn't up to listening to one of Aqua's mothering lectures about being late and how to treat a girl. He already knew he was failing all over the place, but he was going to make sure this part of the date was fun for her. He owed Arien that much.

His attention was elsewhere while she tried to answer Arien's questions in order, her face becoming a darker shade of red as she went on. He looked around, spotting the Ferris Wheel, Tilt-A-Whirl, numerous food stands to which he had no doubt he would later raid with Terra, and several games. He smirked when he found the Crossbow shoot, remembering Arien's talent with archery.

That would keep him busy and make use of her bubbly excitement.

"Hey, did you want to play that?" He gently probed her with his elbow to get her attention.

"OH MY GOD! YES!" She yanked on his arm and dragged him over to the game, leaving Aqua to stand there by herself until Terra joined her. The couple smiled at them, wandering off to leave them alone.

They would see each other later.

Ventus smirked, handing over the crossbow and didn't bother to tell her who the enemy was. It was obvious that the objective of the game was to aim at the mermaids attempting to steal the golden pearl. This was Atlantica, after all, and he wasn't oblivious to Arien's loathing of mermaids.

A maniacal grin spread across her face, a dangerous glint was in her eyes, and her hands were at the ready with fake arrows. As soon as the alarm chimed, mermaids went down. She struck the targets with ease, fingers quickly drawing one arrow after another. The mermaids were all slaughtered in a span of five minutes. A new record for Arien.

She stared at the prizes with a thoughtful pout on her lips, forcing Ventus to look away to push thoughts of kissing her out of his head.

She poked his shoulder. "What do you think I should get?"

"You're asking me? Why? It's your prize."

Arien shrugged her shoulders. She didn't want to tell him that she didn't want to come across as a real girly-girl by picking out a stuffed animal so leave it to him to choose!

Blue eyes scanned the variety of prizes, feeling at unease with her eyes trailing after him as he picked up one stuffed animal after another. He was hesitant in his choice. What if she didn't like pandas? Or dragons? Did she prefer monkeys?

He bit back a groan to avoid looking like he was complaining.

He caught sight of a stuffed flower that had five pink petals with a huge smiley face in the center. The green stem of the flower was as long as her forearm. She could use it as a pillow if she really wanted to. Besides, it was a flower. Girls liked flowers, right?

"Is this okay?" he asked, uncertain.

Arien flashed him a grin. "It's perfect."

Girls. He'd never understand them.

He sighed in relief and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, watching her hug the flower. She seemed happy—that's what really mattered.

"Hey!" she protested loudly as a clown snatched the flower from her hands.

"She loves me," a male voice said from behind the clown makeup as he pulled down a petal. "She loves me not."

Ventus scowled, not being able to place the voice. "Give her back the flower."

The clown looked as if he came out of the Renaissance era. He wore a blue, yellow and black jester costume that clashed against his fiery hair. His exaggerated crimson eye makeup and big grin gave off a maddening impression. Ventus shifted awkwardly, tempted to pinch the round red nose on his face just to show everyone that the clown wasn't making him anxious.

Arien went to grab the flower from him but the clown was able to dodge her. "She loves me." He pulled down another petal. "She loves me not."

She glared at the clown. "SURRENDER THE FLOWER OR ELSE!"

The clown grinned, exposing perfect white teeth. "She loves me."

And the clown was down.

Ventus's eyes widened at the scene before him—his crush had tackled the clown to the ground. Her knees pinned his chest down as she had one hand wrapped his throat and was about to land a punch when Terra heaved her off.

"LET GO! HE HAS MY FLOWER! HE DESERVED IT!"

"Lea, give her back the flower," Aqua ordered, crossing her arms over her chest. "And I told you to leave them alone tonight."

"LEA?" Arien shouted in disbelief, glancing back at the clown. "Lea?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the clown answered gruffly, waving his hand. "I know. Ventus is afraid of clowns, but I couldn't help it." His hand went to his eyes, removing one of the brown contact lens. "I wanted to know how their date was going."

The duo blushed, equally embarrassed.

Terra laughed, roughly patting Lea on the back. "So why not do the normal thing and just ask them?"

Lea shot him a grin. "Not my style, ya know?" He returned the flower to Arien. "Didn't realize it was so important to you."

Arien was going to kill him, or it at least looked that way as she muttered, "Thanks."

Ventus eyed him curiously. "Why the contacts?"

Lea shrugged. "Isa said I looked recognizable even in this outfit and I wanted to throw off people. It worked, didn't it? You didn't know it was me."

Ventus smirked and folded his arms behind his head. "I think that means you look like a clown every day."

A round of laughter came from the group of friends as a wind wafted through them, the wind carrying their laughter to the ears of a familiar person. Golden eyes met blue ones and a stare down commenced between the siblings.

"Ventus," Vanitas greeted with a sneer. "Looks like you made it after all."

Ventus narrowed his eyes at him. "No thanks to you. You made me late."

The older brother shrugged. "Not my problem."

"Vanitas, play nice." Sora came up behind his cousin, a wide grin on his face that lit up his eyes as he saw the group. "Hey everyone! We're all about to head to the great lawn. The fireworks are about to start! Want to join?"

As everyone began to huddle around Sora, like planets following the gravitational pull to the sun, Arien tugged on Ventus's hand. Her stormy gray eyes gave him a hopeful look to which he could only nod in understanding, remembering her earlier words.

She wanted to see the fireworks from the Ferris Wheel.

"Actually, guys, we have plans! We'll catch you later!" Arien announced to the group.

"Ventus! Did you bring some protectio- OW!" Aqua had smacked Lea on the head. "Terra! Control your violent woman!"

Terra chuckled as he led his lady away from the red head, not wanting a fight to start between the two. Ventus silently thanked Aqua for intervening when she did and made a mental note to return the favor in the future. It would have created more unnecessary awkward moments if Lea had been able to finish his sentence.

Once they were in their seats and the Ferris Wheel started moving, the fireworks began exploding into the air. The night sky was decorated with splashes of color. It was easy to locate his friends on the great lawn as blue, red, green and white sparks illuminated the area.

In the background, over the noise of the fireworks, the carnival was playing romantic music. Ventus stopped admiring the fireworks and turned his attention to her, delighted to see childlike innocence shining in her eyes as she observed the fireworks crossing each other.

"You know, that was the first time someone gave me a flower," she said softly, eyes still on the fireworks.

He tensed. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to steal that first time."

She laughed at him and playfully shoved him with her shoulder. "Shut up. I really love the flower."

"That would explain why you were upset with Lea taking it."

She nodded. He smiled, turning his attention back to the fireworks, but took the moment to intertwine his fingers with hers. She gave his hand a slight squeeze, clutching her stuffed flower in her arm.

Both were grateful that no one could see the blush on their faces.


End file.
